Path Dependency and Emergent Relations: Explaining the Different Role of Limited Profit Housing in the Dynamic Urban Regimes of Vienna and Zurich

Abstract

This comparative historical analysis examines the role and market position of limited profit housing (LPH) in Austria and Switzerland. Following a review of explanatory developments in comparative research, it is contended that housing systems emerge from the contingent definition of property, finance and welfare relations, which influence land development opportunities, the channelling of investment via specific institutions and the manner in which housing services are consumed. By abstracting the role of emergent relations underlying housing provision, it is possible to develop more rigorous theories of explanation for differences. Such an explanation draws on the “variety of capitalism” thesis from economic geography and gives more careful attention to regimes of coherence, crisis and adaptation at the urban scale, which mediate more global forces affecting housing investment, provision and consumption.